Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss called for Western nations to send advanced fighter jets to Ukraine in her first address to her fellow members of Parliament since she stepped down as the head of the U.K. government last year.
Truss, who was the United Kingdom’s shortest-serving prime minister, said her nation needs to “do all we can, as fast as we can” to support Ukraine, including sending fighter jets to the country. She called for Great Britain to work with its allies to give Ukraine “the option” the planes, and said London should not ease up on Moscow once the war is over.
“The second thing we need to do is not be complacent when that war is won because I do believe Ukraine will win this war,” she said in her speech on Monday.
Truss said that Ukraine has demonstrated “sheer bravery” since the onset of the war, which marks its one-year anniversary this Friday. She described the moment she was notified of Russia’s invasion last year, saying, “It was devastating news, but although it was devastating, it was not unexpected.”
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also been a strong advocate of providing more support to Ukraine, and has called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to send the country fighter jets, according to BBC News.
Truss also said that the U.K. should have taken action sooner to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine, saying that the intentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin were clear.
“Let’s all be honest, we should have done more earlier,” she said. “The reason that Putin took the action he took is because he didn’t believe we would follow through, and we didn’t take him at his word. As far back in 2007, the Munich Security Conference, Putin made it very clear what his intentions were.”
“[Putin] has talked on many occasions about creating a greater Russia,” she continued. “He took action, as we know, on Crimea, on the Donbas, but we didn’t do enough. We let it pass.”
She also said in her speech that the U.K. must be prepared to support other free democracies, saying that they should “make sure that Taiwan can defend itself.”
“Freedom and democracy are the lifeblood of our society and other free societies around the world. We need to be prepared to do all we can to defend them now, before it is too late. The fact is that being tough is what will bring us peace, and that is what we need to do,” she concluded.